But, for all his pranks and all the messes he made, Tweek hated to see anybody get hurt.  (Usually, when the sorcerers discovered the shambles left by one of Tweek’s pranks, they only got uselessly angry, and since they never knew it was Tweek who did it, their anger only made him snicker in the shadows.)

  The tiny bit of squeamishness that hid itself away in the shadows of his tiny heart caused poor little Tweek no end of misery.  He lived constantly in terror that he might be found out, that a passing sorcerer might catch a whiff of the sickness that was growing within him.

So he kept very much to himself, and hid away in the dark corners where nobody would particularly notice him.  And he was most careful to cover himself with the stinkiest things imaginable to cover the odor, which did the trick, so long as he stayed out of sight.

He might have lived that way for a very long time.  The sorcerers of this terrible city were all very self-centered, and they paid no mind to anything, except themselves and those who could serve them.

So long as Tweek went quietly about his business of gobbling up the sorcerers’ litter, they’d have ignored him.

But Tweek’s nose for mischievousness and tasty things almost proved his undoing.  He happened, once, to come across a jar of leeches as he was scuffling about a sorcerer’s study, cleaning up after the sorcerer’s rather sloppy dinner.  The jar of leeches was just too tempting for the poor little demon.  The glass would shatter so delightfully, and the leeches inside looked just too tasty.

And Tweek, who was a rather undisciplined and shortsighted little fellow, simply could not resist the temptation.  Down came the jar from the sorcerer’s shelf, smash!  It shattered upon the floor.  And little Tweek was busily occupied with catching the struggling leeches in his tentacles and sucking up them up through his trunk when the sorcerer himself burst in through the door to see what all the noise was about.

Tweek was caught, and right in the act!  He trembled with terror and huddled in a heap against the wall.

Standing at the door of his study, the angry sorcerer glared at the little demon and scalded him with angry eyes that burned through the darkness.

But then, after a moment, and seeing what Tweek had done, the sorcerer chuckled.  This was a little matter, after all – leeches were cheap and plenty, and the fat little fellow was only bring naughty, which, of course, is exactly what the sorcerers bred their demons to be.

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